INTERVIEWER: My name is Candice Willie, and in collaboration with Marymount
College and the Hudson River Museum, we are trying to trace the roots of African
Americans who migrated from the South into Westchester Yonkers. We call it
the Black Migration. I'm here now with a narrator who's going to tell us her
story. Okay can you tell us your name please and your date of birth?

NARRATOR: My name is Sophie Ward. I was born August 31, 1942.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm, Sophie tell us a little about where your family is
from. Can you describe your hometown for us?

NARRATOR: I'm from Fayetteville, North Carolina. Ahh,
that's about 600 hundred and some miles from New York. Ahh, it was a town
that there was some slavery and we had a slave market in the middle of our
town. Umm, pretty nice town, pretty large size with a couple of forts--Fort
Bragg and an air force base.

INTERVIEWER: Umm, what was life like for you and your family growing up in
North Carolina?

NARRATOR: Well, we were pretty, you know, we were pretty not well off, but
we weren't really poor. We didn't you know. It was it was not really
bad.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm, what did your family do for a living?

NARRATOR: Well not they weren't all educated
people. They were my grandmother who actually raised me great grandmother,
she was just a everyday worker. Ahh, you know, worked in different homes of
different, uh, white people.

INTERVIEWER: So basically your family, they survived through, through working
for others. Your great grandmother you said.

NARRATOR: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: Umm, a little about any other members of your family?

NARRATOR: Well, umm. They were all about the same. Not a lot of educated
people.

INTERVIEWER: Okay

NARRATOR: Just, you know, modest living people.

INTERVIEWER: The men in your family the type of work that they did?

NARRATOR: Ahh, my grandfather who who reared me also, he was a brick mason.
Umm. The others were just umm, people who worked in the field or wherever.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm, can you tell us a little about what a brick mason
is?

NARRATOR: Those are persons who help to build houses and umm I don't
know a lot about it. But I know it's

INTERVIEWER: Basically carpentry.

NARRATOR: Basically carpentry, yes.

INTERVIEWER: Umm. So schooling in the South, was it easily accessible for
African
Americans?

NARRATOR: Umm, yes and no. Ahh, those who were better able to afford to go,
you know to maybe to college, which in the years that I was growing up
was basically teachers ahh could go, but basically not everybody. I don't,
I don't remember anyone in my family who was.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. Did you yourself ever attend school as a young girl in
the South?

NARRATOR: Did I

INTERVIEWER: Attend school.

NARRATOR: Yes I did. I went elementary school through high school, and I
went a couple of years of college.

INTERVIEWER: Umm. Was it an all black college?

NARRATOR: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: Was there still segregation?

NARRATOR: Pardon?

INTERVIEWER: Was there still segregation in the South
at that time?

NARRATOR: Yes it was. Yes it was. When I was coming
up it was. In fact, ahh during the early sixties, I was in some of the sit
in demonstrations there.

INTERVIEWER: Can you tell us a little about that?

NARRATOR: Ahh, well it started with being not able
to go into town and sit at different counters and being able to just go into
different restaurants, and eat, so I was in some of them. (Chuckles)

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm, do you mind telling us, uhh,
about some of the discrimination you yourself faced if any?

NARRATOR: Well in traveling I I had umm an
occasion to travel ahh when I was in tenth grade from Fayetteville, North
Carolina to Alabama. And as I noticed most of the, ahh, bus depots, trains
depots or wherever they had signs up "colored occupy first vacant."
The same thing was in our buses. At home we had to always occupy the first
vacant rear seats. Ahh that was some of the things we were that we encountered.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm, the church?

NARRATOR: Well my church upbringing was Seventh Day Adventist. I've been
a Seventh Day Adventist all my life. In fact, ahh, that's it's about
five generations of Seventh Day Adventist. We were more or less yeah
most churches were segregated. We didn't have black and white.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm, in dealing with the church did you meet every Sunday what
was church life like in the South in North Carolina?

NARRATOR: Well, we went to church on Saturday.

INTERVIEWER: Okay, Seventh Day Adventist.

NARRATOR: Seventh Day Adventist, and umm yes we met every every
Saturday. It was no big problem with the churches. You know, no big problem
with, ahh, any kind of violence or any kind of thing that would effect our
churches.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm. Now how old were you when you
left North Carolina?

NARRATOR: I was actually about 19 when I actually came
to ahh New York to live. Umm, I came in the summer months to visit my
mother who had been here for many years before I came. She came in the early
forties when I was only a baby. Umm, but I used to visit in the summer, but
I was actually around 19 when I came to really live.

Interview: Okay so you had visited New York prior to coming here to live?

NARRATOR: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: Exactly what made you leave North Carolina? What made you make
the decision to come to New York to live?

NARRATOR: Well, actually my reason was just to be with my mother (laughs).
That was my reason at that time. Uhm hmm.

INTERVIEWER: What did you know about the North? You had visited your mother
here. Did you feel that the North had better opportunities?

NARRATOR: Yes, umm yes, uh, but for me I wasn't again I wasn't
really looking for you know better opportunities. That probably was my mother's
reason for coming. I I knew some about the North, but I mostly liked
the suburbs because I never really stayed in the city. I mostly stayed out
in the suburbs.

INTERVIEWER: Which part of the suburbs?

NARRATOR: White Plains, we first started living.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

NARRATOR: Umm Hmm.

INTERVIEWER: Umm, on your journey up here to New York,
what means of transportation did you take?

NARRATOR: Mainly in the early years that I started
coming to New York, we use to come by train. And then as I got older in
my teens, I would come by bus.

INTERVIEWER: Okay, how was it traveling on the trains?

NARRATOR: Well in in the days that I came up umm the
black folk mostly had to sit I believe it was in the back of the trains,
which weren't very convenient. By the time you got off the train you were
dusty and greasy.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm on your travels here to New York, did you normally
come alone or with any family members friends?

NARRATOR: Most time I came alone.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

NARRATOR: Umm hmmm.

INTERVIEWER: Umm, on your journeys you had visited your mother several times,
but
when you came to stay what did you bring with you?

NARRATOR: In what respect?

INTERVIEWER: In the respect, did you bring any, like, souvenirs any tokens
from back home type of clothes you were wearing in your suitcase?

NARRATOR: Not really.

INTERVIEWER: Any no bus tickets, trains tickets?

NARRATOR: Umm, probably bus tickets or train tickets, but not necessarily.
Cause what what actually happened with me, when I came in the summer,
I would always get things, like clothes, that was up to date. You know, that
I would call, that we didn't have in the South. So I mainly had things that
was already, ahh, you know from the North.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

NARRATOR: So it wasn't nothing in particular that I brought brought with
me.

INTERVIEWER: So besides you and your personal belongings umm in your suitcase
per se

NARRATOR: No.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

NARRATOR: Not that I remember anyway.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. No problem.

NARRATOR: (Chuckles.)

INTERVIEWER: In the South what did you leave behind in the South in
North Carolina?

NARRATOR: Well, I I left behind family members mostly and memories.
Not a lot of ahh you know memorabilia or anything like that, but mostly family
members

INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

NARRATOR: That my grandparents who were very old at the time when I
left, and umm, that's it, really.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm so your family members and your memories your
memories are very important to us. Can you tell us some of the memories you
have about growing up in North Carolina?

NARRATOR: Well I tell you it it. There are a lot of memories. There uh possibly
the way we ate. The nice cakes and pies and whatever you know else families,
get-togethers. Umm friends that you were you know we use to walk.
We use to walk from one end of town to the other. That kind of thing that
you know your used to doing. And umm just leaving behind those that you loved.

INTERVIEWER: All right. So on your journey, exactly what type of fears
did you have 'cause you were leaving behind basically all that you knew. You
had your mother here, but you know that gave you some sort of hope, but on
your journey, what type of fears, what type of worries?

NARRATOR: Fears of venturing out to things that I had not been used to in
the South. For instance, umm, I wanted to go to school for nursing, but it
was just ahh it was seemed to me it seemed like ahh just something
that was really a big deal to do. So I never felt I never had that kind
of, umm, initiative to really do those kind of things because those were not
things that, you know, we were I was really pushed to do.

INTERVIEWER: Exactly what type of goals did young women in the South have?
You weren't pushed to do nursing .You weren't (trails off/ inaudible)

NARRATOR: Well umm I think It may have depended on what, uh, family
you were brought up in. Uh if you were in a family possibly where there
were people who were educated or pursuing an education, then you felt that
you know, that you felt that push. But if they were people who were not umm
educated or who had just minimal education, you weren't always pushed. Now
that wasn't always the case, but you weren't always pushed and you know. My
grandparents that raised me were just grade school people so they didn't.
It's not that they didn't want certain things, but they didn't know how to
you know make you want to do those kind of things.

INTERVIEWER: All right umm you been to New York prior, stayed with your
mother

NARRATOR: Umm hmm.

INTERVIEWER: but your first day when you were here to stay. Describe
that first day.

NARRATOR: I don't even hardly remember that first day. (Laughs.)

INTERVIEWER: If you want to take a minute maybe it'll come back to you.

NARRATOR: Ahh it was just a It was a mixed feeling I guess of fear
and glad to be able now to just stay here and not you know going back and
forth. Umm, and of course I had smaller siblings at about this time so to
stay and stay with them was sort of exciting.

INTERVIEWER: Do you remember anything in particular about that day was
it you know any specifics about that day?

NARRATOR: No, I really don't.

INTERVIEWER: Sunny rainy?

NARRATOR: I I don't remember.

INTERVIEWER: All right. It's not a problem. Umm, when did you arrive in Yonkers?

NARRATOR: Yonkers, I possibly arrived about twenty-one
years ago. I lived other places before I came to Yonkers. I lived White Plains
and Mount Vernon that I stayed many years. But around twenty-one years
I've lived in Yonkers.

INTERVIEWER: All right umm, what made you choose to
come to Yonkers?

NARRATOR: Actually, it it was not my choosing.
It's just that I found an apartment in Yonkers. By this time I was married
and had children.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

NARRATOR: So umm I I moved to Yonkers because it
was convenient there to have a place to live.

INTERVIEWER: About how many children did you have?

NARRATOR: Six. (Laughs.)

INTERVIEWER: Six?

NARRATOR: Yeah. (Chuckles.)

INTERVIEWER: Were they your pride and joy? How did you
feel about your children?

NARRATOR: Oh yeah. My children I have six boys.

INTERVIEWER: Wow.

NARRATOR: They are my pride and joy. Umm, they're all
grown now of course. But umm they are my pride and joy.

INTERVIEWER: Umm, did you feel that your family would have had better opportunities
here in Yonkers?

NARRATOR: No I don't I didn't feel that way when I first moved
to Yonkers, no.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

NARRATOR: Ahh Yonkers was a place that I was not very fond of. (Laughs)

INTERVIEWER: Why was that?

NARRATOR: I don't know. I heard rumors about Yonkers, and things that happened
in Yonkers.

INTERVIEWER: Such as?

NARRATOR: Crime and so forth so I had my own feelings about Yonkers, but
umm it is were my children went to school.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm, getting situated here in Yonkers. How did you learn
about your new home here in Yonkers? What who did anyone help you? How
did you find out about living in Yonkers?

NARRATOR: Umm no not in particular. Just looking around for a place.
I just

INTERVIEWER: Through the newspaper?

NARRATOR: Yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm, when you came here to Yonkers, where exactly did you
live?

NARRATOR: Right around here. Right down in the square. Right down on Main
Street.

INTERVIEWER: In a house?

NARRATOR: Huh? Apartment.

INTERVIEWER: An apartment building?

NARRATOR: Umm hmm.

INTERVIEWER: Umm. So it was exactly who and you who lived in your house?

NARRATOR: Umm, me and all my children. All six at the time. (Laughs)

INTERVIEWER: (Laughs) Umm, your life in Yonkers? Tell us a little about that?

NARRATOR: Well I as I said I been here twenty-one years. Ahh I've
really not found any difficulty after I moved here. Ahh I started to
work here in the museum fourteen years ago. Ahh I worked I came
here because of ahh a friend. But it was at that time also a convenience.

INTERVIEWER: You came here to Yonkers or to the museum?

NARRATOR: No to the museum.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

NARRATOR: Umm I don't want to get ahead of you. (Laughs)

INTERVIEWER: (Laughs) Okay umm so your life in Yonkers for twenty prior
to you working at the museum, what exactly was your general routine here?

NARRATOR: In Yonkers?

INTERVIEWER: Umm hmm.

NARRATOR: Umm, nothing in particular. Just I just lived here.

INTERVIEWER: Any occupations?

NARRATOR: Ahh no. Well I'm a receptionist here so that what I've actually
been.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm you said that your your children had gone
to school here.

NARRATOR: Umm hmm.

INTERVIEWER: Do you have any idea of how they felt about school here in Yonkers?

NARRATOR: Well, after they ahh were used to going to school here, it was it
was no problem. They became friendly with they met friends. Actually,
I'm I'm thinking that it were ahh it was my younger boys who actually
finished their high schooling here in Yonkers. And ahh as I said after
they met friends, and everything, they were fine here in Yonkers.

INTERVIEWER: OK Umm the community here in Yonkers. What type of
community did you live in?

NARRATOR: Well, I lived right in this area here. Right, uh, down about a
mile away.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm for those of use who are not really familiar about
the area, can you describe it a little.

NARRATOR: Okay. I didn't find umm the area where I lived to be too bad. It
was in the general downtown section of Yonkers. So we lived right in the area
of the shopping centers. Umm there were again museums. There's a museum
on...down over I think it's Philips Manor. Ahh they always use to go
in and play in the yard. Ahh they use to come out here to the museum.
And they probably know more about Yonkers then I do actually. (Laughs)

INTERVIEWER: Did you feel that the community was, you know, integrated or
wasn't it very integrated?

NARRATOR: Oh yeah. Yes it was. When I came, it was.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm the quality of the education here in Yonkers.
Do you feel that your kids got a good education here in Westchester, Yonkers?

NARRATOR: I didn't find it, umm, too bad when my children was coming up.
Umm my memory doesn't allow me to remember too many things. But I didn't
find that it was really bad. Ahh they didn't have we didn't have
any particular problems.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm if you could make a comparison between education
here in the North that was accessible to you in comparison to education in
the South, what would you have to say about that?

NARRATOR: Now or then?

INTERVIEWER: Then.

NARRATOR: Then it was umm not the best in the South. Uh, had they come
up in the South in the area that I was there, I wouldn't have found that it
was the best. There was a lot of things there that weren't accessible to us
like different histories. Black history and like that. Ahh which you
probably got here or some

INTERVIEWER: And we're trying to help develop it a little better.

NARRATOR: Yeah right. And there were other things that I don't I
don't recall exactly how much difference it was in the South, but I think
the education here would have been better for the kids.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. Umm if you don't mind me asking. How far did you
pursue your education?

NARRATOR: (Chuckles) Not far enough. I went two years of college. I was majored
in elementary education, but I didn't finish.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. Umm how far did you want to pursue it?

NARRATOR: Well I would like to have gone further. I think I would have changed
my umm majors. I think I would have done something else. Don't know exactly
what, but I don't think it would have been elementary education.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. For your children, what kind of umm goals did you have
for them? How far did want them to pursue their education?

NARRATOR: Well, I actually wanted them to all be which really didn't
happen, but I really wanted them to all be, you know, finished to have
finished college and done ahh, excelled.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. So basically if I'm not wrong, your the goals that
you had for your children, as through generations and from moving from
the South to the North, goals that people had for their children tended to
go up. Do you have anything to say about that?

NARRATOR: I didn't quite understand the question.

INTERVIEWER: The goals that you had for your children. You explained that
when you were going up you had wanted to be a nurse

NARRATOR: Umm hmm.

INTERVIEWER: but you know it wasn't really pressed upon you because
of the circumstances that your family had been in. Your grandparents had only
finished grade school, but you having finished two years of college, do you
feel that that in any way made you have further goals for your own children.

NARRATOR: I think so.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. Umm the job opportunities. Looking back

NARRATOR: Umm hmm.

INTERVIEWER: when you were about nineteen twenty. How do you
feel the job opportunities compared here in the North, here in Westchester,
compared to that in North Carolina?

NARRATOR: The job opportunities I'm not quite sure of because I really didn't
have many jobs. (Laughs) Umm I can tell you one experience that I'm
sort of regretful of was the fact that when I came to New York. I think ahh
one of the companies, maybe IBM was just starting. And I believe that I could
have had an opportunity in there because the person that my mother worked
for ahh told my mother because I had been a couple of years to college that
I should. But I didn't pursue that. Umm in the South we didn't have many job
opportunities umm because remembering in my late teens I use to always want
to get here so that I could sign up for some kind of job for the summer because
we didn't have that kind that kind of opportunities there. But of course
I was always a little later than times to really, you know, purse that.

INTERVIEWER: Umm here in the North, in New York. What other jobs did
other members in your family have?

NARRATOR: Now?

INTERVIEWER: Umm, then. Like what did your mother do?

NARRATOR: Well my mother was just she was just, um she was just
a day worker here, too.

INTERVIEWER: Okay you said that you had been married. Your husband?

NARRATOR: Who me?

INTERVIEWER: Umm hmm.

NARRATOR: Yeah I was married I was married, in the early sixties, but
my husband and I, we separated early.

INTERVIEWER: I'm sorry to hear that.

NARRATOR: (Chuckles)

INTERVIEWER: But do you remember what type of work he had done?

NARRATOR: My husband was into auto mechanics and umm that's really mainly
what he liked. He was also a professional painter, but he mainly liked that
kind of that kind of work.

INTERVIEWER: Umm comparing your life as a young woman in Yonkers. How
do you feel that your life compared to when you were a young woman in the
South?

NARRATOR: Umm the comparison. Umm there were more more opportunities
I suppose than in the South, then. And umm yeah that's basically it.
Uh, more opportunities.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. So opportunities was a really important thing. Umm Southern
folk as I like to say.

NARRATOR: (Laughs)

INTERVIEWER: They have a lot of rituals; they have a lot of routines. They
cook a certain way; you know, they dress a certain way. Did you bring any
of that with you here?

NARRATOR: My accent. (Laughs) Good old Southern accent. Ahh no because
I ahh I guess so though because I learn to cook early. Ahh when
I was younger, and a lot of that kind of things. You know, the different recipes.
The cornbread the collard greens, the biscuits or whatever. Yes I did bring
some of that with me here.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm. The church.

NARRATOR: Umm hmm.

INTERVIEWER: In the South played a very big role in your life. How did the
church play a role in your life here in the North?

NARRATOR: About the same. Ahh about the same. My religion doesn't it
doesn't really change too much from one because it's a worldwide religion,
it doesn't really do too much changing, varying from you know. When I grew
up, it was just about he same as it is now.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm. Did you and your family attend church here in
Yonkers?

NARRATOR: I now attend church in Yonkers. We've attended churches around the
area.

INTERVIEWER: Can you name some of the churches you've attended?

NARRATOR: I was first a member of a church in White Plains.

INTERVIEWER: Do you remember the name?

NARRATOR: Pardon?

INTERVIEWER: The name?

NARRATOR: Yeah. First Seventh Day Adventist Church in White Plains. I was
also a member of a church in Mt. Vernon. Ahh The Fifth Avenue Seventh
Day Adventist Church. Now I am a member of the Riverdale Avenue Seventh Day
Adventist Church here on Riverdale Avenue.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm, Miss Sophie. How do you
celebrate your religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter?

NARRATOR: Well yes, we celebrate them pretty much in
the same way as other religions. We don't yes we do. Christmas

INTERVIEWER: Comparing it to the South.

NARRATOR: To the South? Oh pretty much the same. We there's
no change. There's no change.

INTERVIEWER: Tell us a little about how you celebrated.
What was Christmas and Easter like in the South?

NARRATOR: Well Christmas in the South for me was a big
thing. Not so much religious wise, but we were just happy to see Christmas
come around for the you know different little things, toys, the eating that
we prepared for, the foods that we started preparing for before

INTERVIEWER: So of the foods? What kind

NARRATOR: Huh oh oh my goodness.

INTERVIEWER: We got time. Go ahead.

NARRATOR: What we call pound cake. That my mother my
grandmother. This was really funny though. She would start in November making
cakes, and she had a can, which we don't do here that she put here cake in.
And she put all kinds of fruits down in this can with to settle with
this fruit this umm pound cake so that by Christmas this had all these
different fruit flavors. We also made umm fruitcakes. That was one of our
big things to have fruitcakes, and something that I haven't heard of in a
long time, jelly cake. You make layers and then you put jelly in between it.
So there were different things that we that we you know that was different
that I have don't remember doing since I been here. (Chuckles)

INTERVIEWER: What was the house like during Christmas
and Easter?

NARRATOR: Oh it was the house the smell cause
you had not an electrical gas stove. You had an old wood stove that was ahh
lit up you know. And that's where everything with warmers up top where you
kept the food nice and warm. But it was it was just ahh it was just
a good feeling. Because you had all these smells and all these different things
you know during the holidays that made you feel very festive.

INTERVIEWER: What did the dining table look like?

NARRATOR: Well it was filled with everything; fruits, nuts, candy, all kinds
of things that were again

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm your family. Who was over on Christmas and Easter?
Who came over? Who celebrated with you?

NARRATOR: Umm everyone, ahh, would come over. Cousins, your aunts, uncles
ahh other grandparents you know would come over. It was just one family, big
family affair.

INTERVIEWER: You had said that you don't remember really making the same
things that you had in the South. What is Christmas like now here in New York?

NARRATOR: Well I tell you the truth. Now ahh I have a pretty large family
because my mother has lots of children. I have children and grandchildren.
She has grandchildren. Now we are really, it seemed to me a bigger family,
and we're always together. And it's always what we do now though that
we didn't do then was that one person mainly was there to cook the meals.
But now we just help one another. Everybody brings a dish of something and
we we celebrate that way.

INTERVIEWER: All right it sounds like fun. Umm when you came to Yonkers
you said that your community was pretty well integrated.

NARRATOR: Umm hmm.

INTERVIEWER: But did you and your family ever face any discrimination?

NARRATOR: Ahh not that I remember. No.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. Your most vivid memory of living here in Yonkers? What
stands out in your mind the most?

NARRATOR: Ahh I think what stands out in my mind the most is actually
being here at the museum. Ahh working here at the museum. Where I've
met lots of people, and I think that's one of the main things that really
stands out.

INTERVIEWER: How does working here at the museum make you feel?

NARRATOR: Ahh pretty good because umm the time that I've lived
here, we've been, the staff has been like a family. We've all you know,
whoever comes they see me first. (Chuckles) Really. Whoever they talk to is
mainly me first so I've really sort of a fixed myself to a lot of people,
a lot of things.

INTERVIEWER: Umm have you ever returned to North Carolina since you've
been here?

NARRATOR: Yes, I've returned quite a few times. I don't have too much reason
to return as much now because most of my family members, ahh my father's
people and my mother's people are mostly gone. Ahh I have a lot of cousins
there, but I'm not even sure where a lot of them are so I don't go there as
much anymore.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm so when you used to go before. You said they've
gone. Have they moved? Have they

NARRATOR: Well a lot of them have died.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

NARRATOR: Umm hmm.

INTERVIEWER: But if you can look back, think back a little, when you used
to go, where did you stay?

NARRATOR: I always stayed with my grandparents until they passed away. And
then I used to stay with my father's aunt I mean father's sister, who
was my aunt that I used to live with her, but they're, like I said most of
them are have deceased now.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. What feelings did you have when you went back? How did
you feel about going back home?

NARRATOR: It's always a feeling of you're always you always feel happy
when you we go back. There's been times that umm we have my mother and
I we have decided that maybe we wanted to stay, but umm it's not really
convenient for us at this time. Although the South is more built up from when
we were there, but it's not convenient for us because of the fact that we
don't drive. (Chuckles)

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

NARRATOR: And it's so broad now that we would have to be able to you know
get around do things. But it's always a good feeling when you go back where
you started from.

INTERVIEWER: What do you miss most about the South? About North Carolina?

NARRATOR: Umm just the memories now. Ahh, I don't as I said I don't
have too much family to miss. So it's just the memories of childhood, the
things that you used to do, the friends that you left behind.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm. Do you feel that you've changed and that your
life has changed since you left the South? Like how do you feel you as a person
have changed?

NARRATOR: Oh I've changed in a lot of ways. Ahh my lifestyle is nowhere
near the same. Things that were simple there ahh could be somewhat complicated.
I don't know exactly how to explain that, but it's such a difference. It's
such a vast difference from when I was growing up to now because things are
so, I guess modern ahh whatever. Ahh I think that would be the how
I would feel about it.

INTERVIEWER: Are you happy that you decided to make the decision to leave
North
Carolina?

NARRATOR: Ahh in a way I am in a way I am. Umm I may have umm things
may have been different had I stayed there because I would have just been
adjusted to that lifestyle. But ahh now that I left I don't really feel
any remorse you know or any reason to go back at this point.

INTERVIEWER: All right. When you had left as a young girl at that time would
you have recommended others to do the same as you had done? To leave?

NARRATOR: No no.

INTERVIEWER: How come?

NARRATOR: Ahh for no apparent reason. I just, I just didn't. (Chuckles)

INTERVIEWER: Umm I heard you tell me that you thought you were old,
but I don't think you're old. So what do you still wish to accomplish in your
life? Do you still have any dreams, any goals?

NARRATOR: Not much. Just to see my, possibly, grandchildren now excel and
achieve goals in life.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. What kind of goals do you have for your grandchildren,
for your family?

NARRATOR: Well, that they will get an education, be productive, be prosperous
and live happy lives.

INTERVIEWER: Okay umm. How do you feel, from your own experience, about
the African American migration from the South?

NARRATOR: I I I feel in umm some ways that those who were able
to migrate from the South, and who have been able to make good accomplishments,
I think it was a good thing. There are those who stayed who still have excelled,
and that you know, but those who were able to and those who felt the need,
I think that it you know I think that it was a good thing.

INTERVIEWER: I've pretty much asked you all that I have to ask you, but I
want, you know, to give you the opportunity you know that if you had anything
else to add just your feelings about the whole topic, feel free to share.

NARRATOR: Well, I appreciate having the opportunity to be able to add whatever
I could have to this umm conversation. (Chuckles).